India arrests another Kashmiri policeman

Police in Indian-administered Kashmir have arrested another security official for suspected links with groups fighting Delhi's rule in the disputed state, the region’s police chief said on Sunday.

15 Jun 2003 14:22 GMT

The latest arrest takes the total number of policemen held on similar suspicion during the last fortnight to seven.

The arrested policemen are suspected of helping Kashmiri-fighters to carry out attacks on pro-government targets.

“Their interrogation has brought to light a nexus between terrorists and police personnel,” said Gopal Sharma, the police chief in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Sharma said the arrested police constable Abd al-Ahad had been actively involved in the murder of a former law minister Mushtaq Lone on September 2002.

Lone was seeking re-election, when he was killed in an election rally.

Besides Ahad, another policeman Rustum Lone is alleged to have been involved in the killing. He has been arrested as well.

Terror-links

The police chief said the minister’s killing was planned and executed by Hizb Allah Mujahedin and Jaish-e-Mohammad and that the two arrested policemen had collaborated with them.

A couple of other policemen, including an officer, were arrested earlier this month in Indian-administered Kashmir for their alleged involvement in two suicide-bomb attacks in the state on 12 May and 3 June.

The two attacks had left two security force personnel dead and four others injured.

Around a dozen armed groups, seeking Kashmir’s independence from Indian rule, are battling Indian forces since 1990.